

FLOS is proud to announce its sponsorship of the first survey exhibition of Cypriot-born, London based designer Michael Anastassiades.
Organized and presented by NiMAC (The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation) and the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus, the exhibition Things That Go Together reflects on the designer’s twelve-year practice to date; from his eponymous brand to his extensive studio collaborations with established manufacturers such as FLOS. The show presents Anastassiades’ design process through his research, his personal collection of objects and finished works from the studio archive.
Michael Anastassiades founded his studio in London in 1994. He trained as a civil engineer at London’s Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine before taking a masters degree in industrial design at the Royal College of Art. His work is featured in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the MAK in Vienna, the Crafts Council in London and the FRAC Centre in Orleans France. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Reload the Current Page’, Point Centre for Contemporary Arts Nicosia, ‘Time And Again’ at the Geymüllerschl.ssel/MAK in Vienna, ‘Doings on Time and Light’, Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul, ‘To Be Perfectly Frank’ at Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm, ‘Kinetic Light 2 – Gold Pendulum’, Norfolk House music room at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Cyprus Presidency at the European Parliament in Brussels Belgium, ’13 Mobiles’, Atelier Jesper Brussels. Notably, his work has been commissioned by the A.G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia with site-specific installations at the Hagia Sophia cathedral in London.
Anastassiades is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) at the Royal Society of Arts. He is involved in educational programs at international institutions such as Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and ECAL, Lausanne.
Michael’s first collaboration with FLOS is dated back to 2013. The light objects he has designed for the Italian company since then, including String Lights, IC Lights, Copycat, Captain Flint, and the recent Overlap and Arrangements, have won top industry awards and been hugely successful with the international public. The poetic nature of his designs, combined with his skillful use of highly innovative lighting technology solutions, makes every work unique and surprisingly emotional.
All the products designed for FLOS over the years are showcased in the exhibition, including an impressive installation of Arrangements. A special room reproducing 72 different miniature configurations of String Lights is meant to show the versatility of this extraordinary design, which can be used freely and creatively in infinite ways.
NiMAC will be hosting a series of parallel events through the course of the exhibition, including guided tours, lectures, discussions, educational programs, activities and workshops. In addition, a special publication will be launched in May 2019 by Apartamento Publishing S.L.
Contributors will be Yiannis Toumazis, Director of Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC), Zoë Ryan, John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago, Emily King, Design Writer and Curator, Elena Parpa, Writer, Researcher and Curator, Artist Mario García Torres, and the publication’s editor, Alessandro Rabottini, Curator and Artistic Director of Miart.
“Every time you start a new project you are faced with the anxiety of a blank page: that this time around you will learn from the time before and what you will draw, will most probably be better. It is obvious to think that practice and knowledge are part of an evolving process and that placing your work in a chronological sequence would reveal this process clearly. It is only when you place everything randomly that you understand that the creative act extends beyond evolution and that instinct and spontaneity can surpass knowledge.” Michael Anastassiades


THINGS THAT GO TOGETHER
NiMAC – Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre
8 March – 20 July 2019
www.studiomichaelanastassiades.com